“We reside a ‘kairos,’ a propitious time of God within the history of the church,” Cardinal Pedro Barreto Jimeno, S.J., told America in an exclusive interview in Rome on Sept. 6 through which he revealed for the primary time that Pope Francis has approved the statute of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA), giving it formal recognition within the church.
Cardinal Barreto, 78, the archbishop of Huancayo within the Central Andes mountains of Peru, was elected president of the Amazon conference on March 27, succeeding Cardinal Claudio Hummes of Brazil, who resigned due to unwell health and has since died.
Speaking in Spanish, he explained that the now officially recognized body “involves bishops, priests, ladies and men religious and the lay faithful from the nine countries of the Amazon region,” namely Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Suriname, Guiana and French Guiana. (An episcopal conference, in contrast, includes only the bishops of a certain territory.) “lt is the primary of its kind within the history of the church,” he stated, and “the primary concrete fruit of the Amazonian synod.” The cardinal was one among the three president-delegates of that synod.
Cardinal Barreto explained that the now officially recognized body “involves bishops, priests, ladies and men religious and the lay faithful from the nine countries of the Amazon region.”
CEAMA, he said, may be compared “to the small mustard seed that grows little by little and spreads its branches to welcome all the universal church.” He expects similar ecclesial conferences to emerge on other continents in the approaching years, including Africa and Asia, as bishops from those continents have already shown great interest within the structural developments within the Amazon region.
He predicted that in the approaching years “bishops’ conferences may have to rework themselves into ecclesial conferences.” He believes that future synods can be “ecclesial synods,” as has been signaled by the undeniable fact that “Predicate Evangelium,” the structure for the reform of the Roman Curia, has strategically dropped the phrase “of bishops.” No longerd “the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops,” it’s now called “the General Secretariat of the Synod.”
The Peruvian Jesuit recalled that the ultimate document of the synod on the Amazon was “approved by the pope.” He saw this as “a revolution within the church” because prior to that, each synod presented its recommendations or proposals (normally around 50) to the pope, who would incorporate them into his post-synodal exhortation.
Pope Francis, nevertheless, didn’t follow this model for the Amazon synod; as an alternative, he presented the synod’s final document to the entire church when he published his exhortation “Querida Amazonia,” saying, “I even have preferred to not cite the ultimate document on this exhortation because I’d encourage everyone to read it in full.”
“lt is the primary of its kind within the history of the church,” he stated, and “the primary concrete fruit of the Amazonian synod.”
Cardinal Barreto said that final document emphasized the necessity for a recent ecclesial body to advertise synodality and shape a church with “an Amazonian face,” while looking for recent paths for evangelization and for an integral ecology. The brand new Amazon ecclesial conference is that body.
It was officially created on June 29, 2020, as “an efficient instrument” for implementing the proposals that emerged from the 2019 Synod on the Amazon and for giving life to “4 great dreams” for the region expressed by Pope Francis in “Querida Amazonia,”his post-synodal exhortation.
Cardinal Barreto said that by selecting the title “Querida Amazonia” for his post-synodal exhortation, Pope Francis was “putting a reputation on a creature that could be a biome through which 30 million people and three million communities of Indigenous peoples live.” The alternative of name, he said, “indicates an attitude of the church, which also corresponds to the will of the Indigenous peoples, that the church be an ally of those peoples who’ve historically only been beaten of their lives and today suffer deforestation and the exploitation of the resources of their lands.”
He cited for instance of their suffering the undeniable fact that while Brazil has 63 percent of the Amazonian territory, it has a lower population of Indigenous peoples than the opposite eight countries of the region that comprise 45 percent of the territory. He said, “this shows that the Indigenous peoples had historically suffered genocide in Brazil and in other countries like Peru.”
Cardinal Barreto predicted that in the approaching years “bishops’ conferences may have to rework themselves into ecclesial conferences.”
“‘Querida Amazonia,’ he said, “manifests the will of Pope Francis to hunt recent paths for the church and recent paths for an integral ecology.”
“I used to be struck by the undeniable fact that while being a synod for Amazonia it laid out recent paths for the entire church, and never just for Amazonia,” he added. “Due to this fact, the pope was pondering of the universal church, but ranging from the existential periphery of the culture of Amazonia.”
The cardinal sees “a relation” between “Querida Amazonia,” the synod’s final document and the newly recognized church body: “One could say the Ecclesial Conference of Amazonia is the most effective gift that Pope Francis has given not only to Amazonia but additionally to the universal church. Why? Because so far there have been episcopal conferences, however the ecclesial conference of Amazonia is the primary [of its kind] within the history of the church.
“The difference is immense because so far the church has united bishops and cardinals in [episcopal] conferences of different countries, and even in organisms like CELAM [the Conference of Latin American Bishops], whereas the ecclesial conference…is centered on the people of God in accordance with the Second Vatican Council,” he explained.
He recalled that the second chapter of Vatican II’s Dogmatic Structure on the Church, “Lumen Gentium,” is dedicated to “the People of God,” whereas its third chapter speaks of “the bishops on the service of the people of Jesus.” Cardinal Barreto recalled that “the Second Vatican Council saw the eruption of the Holy Spirit within the renewal of the universal church.”
“The the ecclesial conference…is centered on the people of God in accordance with the Second Vatican Council,” he explained.
Asked if the brand new Amazonian body might be considered “one among the good novelties of this pontificate,” the cardinal emphasized that “this is just not something recent from Francis; it really stems from the Second Vatican Council,” and “Francis is implementing that council.”
This ecclesial conference is “very much linked to REPAM, the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network,” a network for the Amazonian region arrange in 2014 to reply to the grave concerns of the pope and the church regarding the deep wounds of the region and its peoples.
He recalled that “REPAM features a unit that focuses on human rights within the Amazonian territory and reports rapidly to the United Nations, the Organization of American States and the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights when these rights are being violated, thereby making the voices of the region heard.”
One other significant development can be the creation of a Catholic Amazonian University, due to a foundation established by the Catholic University of Quito but independent from it, he said. This recent university is vital due to the low level of participation of scholars from Indigenous communities in higher education; a mere 3.2 percent are currently studying at university.
The cardinal explained that the conference is developing an Amazonian rite as called for by the synod and is reflecting on “the experiences with Amazonian rites, liturgical expressions and spirituality.” He revealed that in this visit to Rome he, along with other members of the conference leadership, visited the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments on Sept. 1.
“We’re in a strategy of dialogue with the Dicastery for Divine Worship and with Cardinal [Arthur] Roche, and that is the primary time ever that now we have been capable of dialogue with this dicastery in a fraternal way, in an attitude of listening,” he said.
“The Amazon conference are “also discussing the query of ministries…their service within the church and, more specifically, the ministry of girls.”
The Peruvian cardinal emphasized that “from the very starting, the church has sought to inculturate the Gospel in every way possible, and Pope Francis has clearly affirmed that this needs to be done.” The cardinal recalled that Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), the Italian-born Jesuit missionary to China, was one who really went down the trail of inculturation, but “Roman centralism” soon blocked this effort through its decision on the query of the Chinese rites, with consequences that we still see today.
He expressed joy, nevertheless, at finding that now a unique mentality prevails in Rome on the Dicastery of Divine Worship where “we had an experience of welcome, listening, and accompaniment.” Consequently, he said, “we’re on a great path, now we have begun a dialogue, and we will not be going it alone.” He expressed gratitude to the bishops of the dicastery.
He revealed that the members of the Amazon conference are “also discussing the query of ministries…their service within the church and, more specifically, the ministry of girls and the service women are already giving in Amazonia.” He reported “that inside Amazonia, but additionally outside the region, women religious have a good time baptisms, weddings, liturgies and a few even hear confessions for individuals who confide personal problems to them although they can not give [sacramental] absolution.”
He recalled that CLAR—the acronym for the Latin American conference of ladies and men religious—is one among the founding entities of each the newly formed ecclesial conference and REPAM.
“For this reason, we’re discovering the very essential figures of Indigenous women…and the roles they’ve within the communities.” He mentioned, for instance, that the leadership of REPAM consists of a president and three vice presidents, and two of the latter are women, including an Indigenous woman. Likewise, the leadership of the Amazon ecclesial conference consists of a president and 4 vice presidents, and again the latter includes not only a lay man but additionally a girl religious and an Indigenous woman.
Cardinal Barreto revealed the Dicastery for Bishops at first felt disconcerted by the brand new eccesial group. “They didn’t know find out how to relate to the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon,” he said. But then Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the top of the dicastery, wrote a letter to Cardinal Hummes, president of the Amazon conference, “communicating the canonical approval of CEAMA but at the identical time asking us for modification of the statute.” The revised statute, which emphasized higher the ecclesial nature of the conference, has been approved and ratified by Pope Francis and “can be published in the approaching days,” the cardinal said.
He concluded the interview with these words, “We reside in a really special moment of the grace of God. It’s a time of hope within the midst of a desperate, aimless humanity.”
Correction 10/3/2022: This text has been updated to correct a spelling error within the cardinal’s last name.